Despite the growing displacement that exists today between the architectural process and the wider society that was once the profession’s primary concern there is a clear desire in the design world to heal this key relationship for the betterment of our urban context. There a number of theories on how this should be achieved however they all centre around the redefining of how architects communicate with the culture that they are tasked with defining.

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By exploring the complexities that make up the city of Montpellier’s built environment and the various relationships that exist between general society and the architectural world, the Montpellier International Forum for Architecture and Urbanism attempts to develop a comprehensive and detailed architectural language that can create and define spaces that are tasked with the reunification of the people Montpellier and their urban context. To achieve this ambitious goal the forum’s first priority was to develop spaces that fostered a sense of integration and discussion between the two aspects of the building, the architecture school and the public forum. This was accomplished by developing a detailed understanding of the context that the building inhabits, both in terms of the historical and contemporary factors that have shaped the city of Montpellier and the programatic requirements that dictate the forms and relationships between spaces needed to allow the building achieve it’s key function of cultivating dialogue. 

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With this exploration in mind the design developed a form that reflected the idealistic nature of the proposed building’s ambitions. A contrasting language of transparent voids and solid blocks was quickly established that responded to the dualistic qualities of the building’s public and private program. The question then became about how best to blend these two factors of the brief and was tackled by introducing layers of space designed to encourage meeting and interaction through the inhabited wall and the balconies that overlook the social well. While the plan was organised into a coherent layout that fostered the desired relationships between members of the public and members of the architectural communities the way in which these spaces were expressed was also being developed in parallel. Different atmospheres were designed into each of the layers however, while still distinct, were designed to overlap with each other. While the social well and the solid blocks are separated by the inhabited wall and balcony spaces, transitioning from the social well through the balconies and the inhabited wall, into the solid elements should feel natural allowing for the possibility of interaction between people using the two different elements of the brief.

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Through this approach to the building’s design it is hoped that the Montpellier International Forum for Architecture and Urbanism will be able to tackle the sense of displacement, not only between Montpellier’s own urban fabric but the the displacement that has occurred between the urban environment and the people that use it. By bringing together the professions tasked with cultivating the built environment and those who use it in a setting that fosters discussion the building hopes to have a positive impact on not just Montpellier but by extension the way humans use cities across the world.